The invention relates to a wind deflector arrangement on a motor vehicle panel with a panel cut out, preferably a roof with a roof cutout, said cutout being closeable by a rigid sliding cover, the wind deflector being mounted along the front edge of the roof cutout and swivelable on an axis located crosswise to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, said wind deflector further being connected at each end with a lever arm rotatably mounted in a lateral part of the roof frame, said wind deflector being raised by spring force when the sliding cover is opened and lowered when the sliding cover is closed, by virtue of a member connected with the sliding cover running on the lever arm, said sliding cover being guided on both sides by a forward guide shoe running in a track mounted laterally in the roof frame, said guide shoe being connected with the sliding cover by a guide shoe bracket.
In known wind deflector arrangements of this kind, the lever arms of the wind deflector are mounted laterally beside the guide tracks for the guide shoes and are pressed downward when the sliding roof is closed by plastic projections provided on the lower side of the sliding cover, in order to fold down the wind deflector. The disadvantage of this known arrangement is that the lever arms require the guide tracks for the guide shoes of the sliding cover to be displaced relatively far inward, resulting in a reduction of the width of the roof cutout.
An object of the invention is to provide a wind deflector arrangement in which the actuating device for the wind deflector ideally requires no additional space in the sidewise direction, so that a roof cutout of maximum width can be provided for a given width of the sliding cover.
This object is achieved according to the invention by mounting the lever arm below the guide shoe bracket in the slide path of the guide shoe.
This proposal according to the invention means that the actuating mechanism for the wind deflector is no longer located laterally outside the guide shoes and guide shoe tracks, but essentially in the same planes, so that no additional lateral space is required for actuating the wind deflector. Hence, the roof cutout can have an optimum width.
The lever arms, and the wind deflector connected therewith, are preferably lowered by the forward guide shoes themselves, said shoes running on the tops of the lever arms, when the sliding cover is closed. This eliminates the need for additional members such as the plastic projections in known designs.
Preferably the tracks guiding the guide shoes are given a form which is U-shaped in cross section, open at the sides with horizontal legs. With this arrangement it is advantageous for the lower leg of the track in the vicinity of the lever arm to be replaced by the top of the lever arm. That is, the top of the lever arm serves to resiliently guide the lower part of the guide shoes as the sliding cover approaches its closed position.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, which show, for purposes of illustration only, a single embodiment in accordance with the present invention.